Trucked and belly cargo drive growth at Brussels Airport

Cargo volumes at Brussels Airport increased by 15.9 per cent in May to 65,250 tonnes driven by the growth of belly and trucked cargo.

Total flown cargo was up 11.3 per cent to 48,800 tonnes, with a small increase in full freighter volumes, up 1.4 per cent to 13,801 tonnes, integrators growing by 7.5 per cent to 20,649 tonnes and belly cargo rising by 30.1 per cent to 14,349 tonnes.

Full freighters have been declining for the past 12 months due to stricter noise standards in the Brussels Region, though they recovered slightly with particularly good performance from most carriers and new routes to Latin America.

Belly cargo’s rapid growth was thanks to new long-haul routes that have been launched in recent months.

Growth was mainly driven by imports, up 15 per cent primarily from Asia and Latin America, while exports were up three per cent thanks to Latin American flights.

Trucked cargo reached record figures, with 32.1 per cent growth to 16,450 tonnes.

So far in 2018, total cargo has increased 5.4 per cent to 303,801 tonnes with flown cargo up one per cent to 228,173 tonnes and trucked cargo by 21.5 per cent to 75,628 tonnes.

Full freighter volumes are down 11.2 per cent for the first five months of the year to 69,172 tonnes, integrators are up 1.4 per cent to 92,996 tonnes and belly cargo up by 17.2 per cent to 66,005 tonnes.